TESTIMONIALS

Through a series of coincidences and serendipity, I somehow found my way to this site which I credit, at least in part, with yanking me from my stubborn agnosticism to theism and keeping me there. I have attended Lutheran church since I was five, but never honestly believed everything I was hearing. I would look up and peer around the church as we were singing a hymn or saying a prayer and wonder, "Are we all just sheep? Have I been brainwashed into a hoax?"

Then, somehow, I came across atheismisdead.blogspot.com. Now I don't exactly see eye-to-eye all the time with the admin there, but he linked this site in one of his most recent posts. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I only first heard of William Lane Craig two weeks ago.

What finally drove me to search for answers was an internet forum debate about religion, which I lost horribly. It's like Dr. Craig said in one of his podcasts, some degree of apologetics must be combined with Sunday School if there is to be any hope of our children being able to defend their worldviews. I have actually downloaded every Reasonable Faith and Defenders podcast and put them on my mp3 player to listen to at my job which fortunately is a delivery job. What's amazing is that, not only do I learn something every podcast, I have one of my beliefs changed at a fundamental level every time.

The one that has affected me most so far was when he said to stop thinking that the point of this world is our personal happiness. It seems almost common sense, but you don't know how backwards my worldview was. I have ordered a couple things from the store, including the RF workbook that I am going to show my pastor when it arrives to see about setting up a chapter here, or at least incorporate apologetics into our Sunday School.

I can't really say enough. Thank you so much for making me feel less self-conscious about my beliefs and realizing that there are an enormous amount of logical arguments out there supporting them, even in the midst of so much bunk. Oh, and one more thing. I was lucky enough to nab a radio gig recently at a small podunk radio station in Central Jersey. Currently I just play country music, but I'm going to make a promise right now. Should I ever make it to the big time and get my own national program, Dr. Craig is going to be my first guest. I want to be part of this project and do whatever I can to help it along.

-Drone

First of all, I apologize for my English. I haven't taken English classes ever, so my English comes from movies, music and my own studies. Second, this is a very personal mail. I hope not to bother you.

My name is — —, I'm a Chilean undergraduate, now finishing my licenciatura on philosophy (something like a bachelor). I want you to know how helpful you have been for me and for many people here in Chile, and want you to ask you for some information, which I think will be useful for my future work on apologetics.

I am 22 years old and am a "new" Christian. I have been one for almost two years, before that time, I was a militant atheist. I never intended to become a religious person, and certainly not a Christian. But, then, one day I was sitting in front of my computer, reading the news and, suddenly, became aware that there is a God, and that Christ is God Incarnated. Just like that. And that day changed my life. I struggled all my life with depressions, with pain and the lack of meaning of life. Not anymore.

But for a very long time I was ashamed of my faith. Me a Christian? All my friends were atheists, my father was, my (former) girlfriend, etc. And I had no good reasons to "justify" my change. I was silent about it. The one person who was there for me was a friend who was also struggling with her doubts. Now she is a Christian (again) and she is now my girlfriend.

And, one day, I started to read analytic philosophy. van Inwagen, Rea, Merricks, Zimmerman. I didn't know anything about good philosophy, so I started with the problem of material composition. And it turned out that they were Christians! I discovered that so many good philosophers were Christians, I was happy! However, I still had not good arguments for my beliefs, so I was not a complete out-spoken Christian. But this year I took a course with a excellent professor and philosopher (at another university! Mine is "liberal" - i.e. very atheist -. He offered me the course for free! God's hand.). The course was "The existence of God". There I read so many good papers, and there I discovered your work. It changed my life, literally. I read as much as it is available on line (I had no money to buy the books by amazon). I found that your arguments were so strong that I felt God was telling me "There you have! Stop being silly, and spread the word! Be a good Christian!" I watched your debates on youtube, they were a real help. I decided to become a good philosopher to be able to defend the faith here in Chile. Among my friends and any person I knew.

Then I sent your debates and articles to many atheists friends. Many of them now are agnostics but with a desire to know more about Christ, and some of them are now on their way to be out-spoken Christians. My girlfriend is also very grateful, because, although she doesn't study philosophy, she is now starting to study your work. And she also watches your videos. I try to help her with her doubts, and you help me to do that.

Here in Chile there are steps towards a society of Christian Philosophers, and I was the one who proposed the idea. If this project succeeds, you will have some responsibility on that! That big is the impact you have made on me! You gave me confidence. And not only, not at all, for your philosophical work. It is also you commitment to faith, your example, which I found amazing. We talk, my girlfriend and I, about how wonderful Christian life your wife and you live. Your christian commitment is what we aspire to as a couple.

Now, I want to be able to defend Christianity. And seeing the impact of your debates among my friends, I think that debates are an excellent way to do it. But, unfortunately, I don't know how to debate properly. I want to know whether you know some book or some method to improve one's skills. I would be very grateful for any information.

Finally, I want you to thank you for all your work. I am sure you and your wife will continue touching people's minds and hearts, as you touched mine.

This isn't a question. I just want to express my thankfulness to you and your ministry, including everyone involved in it. Your answer to the most recent question posed by Mark brought me to my knees and reminded me that I need to continually come before my precious Lord, my Creator and Saviour and stay connected in a right relationship to Him. Sometimes a hard heart can creep up on me without me realising it. Head knowledge is so important and I'm so grateful to you for the wealth of resources you offer but, also running through it all is clearly your love and tender heart toward our loving Father and the Holy Spirit's living waters flow through your words to me. For me, you strike a perfect balance. Thank you again.

-Jude

I am writing to thank you for coming to Oregon State University on Monday to debate Dr. Stenger on the existence of God.

I teach Philosophy and Religion at Chemeketa Community College in Salem , OR , and I was glad to attend Monday’s debate as well as to publicize it so that my students could come.

On a personal note, I have found your debates and Reasonable Faith ministry meaningful. As someone who was raised Catholic, largely abandoned his faith for a stoic existentialism while serving in the Marine Corps, re-embraced Roman Catholicism, took a detour into Zen Buddhism, studied with enthusiasm under Marcus Borg, and ultimately came to saving faith in Christ I have found your thoughtful, compassionate, and rigorous approach to Philosophy of great value.

As I listened to you Monday night, I was as energized as I have ever been while listening to a public presentation or dialogue/debate.

Thank you!

And, may the Lord bless you in your work and ministry!

-Patrick

Thanks for the information. This simple attention shows how much you are serious about the Christian faith - and this motivates me to persist in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Actually writing from Brazil, more specifically the city of Salvador in Bahia. I knew the work of Dr. Craig four years ago by one of his books had been translated into Portuguese. I was so early in the second year of theology at the Baptist College studying Brazilian modern liberal theology and especially the his torical critical Bible as if it were the best method for understanding the Bible.

It was a difficult period for me because I started to lose my faith in God and respect for the church. I began to criticize the Christian churches, with reason and without reason. Pastors have become the target of my jokes and rudeness. Allow me dive into the world of modern theology. I tried to read everything: Albrecht Ritschl, Oscar Cullmann, Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Tillich, Barth Ehrman and others.

I remember once, the teacher of Harvard University, Dr. Harvey Cox, was in Brazil to work. He spoke at the Baptist College of Salvador with the theme "Theology and class differences." One of his students, graduated from Harvard University, was my professor of systematic theology. I remember his lectures were just about the Theology of Liberation. We studied the thought of Jürgen Moltmann, Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, Martin Luther King - Classes of Theology more like philosophy classes - but a reductionist philosophy, only the Marxist philosophy.

As a seminary without a solid foundation began to hate God and reject it. However, the days went by, and my heart suffered the lack of me aning in all this. Although he had decided to reject God, while not find meaning in that choice. How could I reject God? How to blame God for the suffering in the world? How to criticize the Church because of past mistakes? I was transferring the experience of these men to my experience. That was cowardice on my part, because every year I lived in the church, was loved by all those people.

When God cast out of my life, feeling he no longer had any sound basis to determine something as right or wrong. In search of a philosophical basis plunged into the works of men like Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Feuerbach, Freud, Marx, among others. Although he learned a lot from all of them, you can not get rid of God. All this reading were important to my training, however, still can not agree with them. The book "The Antichrist", the German philosopher Nietzsche, I could see only a man angry at Christianity. I am not sure, it seemed to me that Nietzsche had some painful childhood experiences with religion, because their words were only hostility. I am not convinced of anything of what he was saying.

That was when reading the works of Christian thinkers such as C. S. Lewis, Norman Geisler, Ravi Zacharias, RC Sprull, Alister McGrath, and especially of Dr. William Lane Craig, I began to see that it is possible to reconcile faith with reason and it was possible to combat those arguments. I realized that it is possible to be a Christian and at the same time feed the intellect. It is possible to reconcile Christian faith with academic life. From there I went to change the view embraced the faith again.

As Dr. Craig 'the average Christian does not realize that there is an intellectual battle being waged in universities, in journals and in professional circles. Enlightenment naturalism and anti-realism postmodern joined in unholy alliance against a broadly theistic worldview, and specifically Christian '( CRAIG. William L. Philosophy and Christian Worldview. P.16).

I agree with Dr. Craig. I realize that this does not happen only in the United States but also throughout Europe, and strangely enough also in Brazil. Although it has been colonized by a Christian country (Portugal), the basis of Brazilian universities is markedly influenced by the French parent company. The motto 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' is still remembered in the classrooms of universities in Brazil. The majority of Brazilian teachers are agnostics or atheists. Not by chance the Elite Brazilian (people of influence) are averse to religion, especially Christianity.

These are some of the problems we face. So I think we need an apology that also answers to th ese questions. These are issues of morality and ethics that has to do with the church and gospel. I accepted the invitation of Dr. Craig 'Christians can not remain indifferent to the outcome of this struggle. For the most impor tant institution specifies how Western culture is the University "( CRAIG. William L. Philosophy and Christian Worldview. P.16).

So I embraced this fight here in Brazil. I have tried to study the works of Dr. Craig and prepare myself as much as possible to present a gospel that dialogue with the reality and needs of the people. At the same time, a gospel that is supported by tools such as history, theology, philosophy, among others. We n eed an apology also here in Brazil.

My prayer is that this ministry continues to be a blessing in the lives of many, as it was in my life. Today I'm sure if it was the contact with the literature Christian apologetics, especially with the texts of Dr. Craig, he would have abandoned the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Soli Deo gloria!

-Ivan